Method and apparatus for obtaining telephone status over a network

ABSTRACT

A system and method for monitoring the state of a structure over a network. The system and method provides for providing the status of a monitoring device to a status file. The status file is accessible over the Internet by computer so that a party can first determine the status of the device. The system operates over normal PSTN&#39;s, over cable systems, over wireless networks and over the Internet.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional application of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/182,674, filed Jul. 15, 2005, which is a continuation inpart of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/759,107 filed Jan. 12, 2001,now U.S. Pat. No. 7,088,802, which is a continuation in part of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 08/963,373, filed Oct. 20, 1997, now U.S.Pat. No. 6,175,616 and a continuation in part of application Ser. No.09/265,656, filed Mar. 2, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,483,900. The11/182,674, 09/759,107, 09/265,656, and 08/963,373 applications areincorporated herein by reference, in the entirety, for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

This invention relates generally to electronically determining thestatus of a telephone over a network. More specifically, the presentinvention provides a method and apparatus for obtaining the status of atelephone (whether on-hook or off-hook) over a network in order tomaximize the probability of reaching a desired party. It also provides amethod and apparatus for sending an e-mail to the desired party forstorage as a voice mail message.

Literally millions of times per day, parties attempt to contact oneanother, only to find that the party initiating the telephone callreceives a busy signal or is put into the phone mail of the receivingtelephone when that telephone is off-hook. Not only is this experiencefrustrating for the caller, but also can result in lost business orsocial opportunities on the part of the receiving party who is on theline speaking with someone else. In addition, receiving busy signals andthe inability to complete telephone calls results in the loss ofmillions of dollars in revenue both from the time expended by the callerin trying to reach the desired party, as well as lost opportunities forcommerce or other social contact.

Telephone line activity monitoring has been the subject of invention inthe past. A form of line activity monitoring has been proposed for thepurpose of obtaining information regarding statistics of line usage.This proposed system detects the usage of the line, but does nottransmit status information to others in any current fashion. Forfurther details, refer to U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,416 to Theis et al.

Another monitoring system has been described whose purpose is to notifyan operator that a telephone line is open so that a desired message canbe delivered by the operator to a receiving party. This system comprisesan automatic dialer that attempts to reach individuals on a repetitivebasis until a connection is made. Again, status of the telephone at anygiven point of time is not provided. For further details, refer to U.S.Pat. No. 3,989,899 to Norwich.

An integrated calling directory has been described that utilizes apersonal computer that stores information about the numbers beingcalled. It does not address the problem associated with the called partytelephone being in an off-hook condition. This condition is not reportedin any fashion to the initiator of the telephone call. For furtherdetails, refer to U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,931 to Bourg et al.

A communication system has been proposed that uses a voice messagesystem for storing and retrieving voice messages and faxed data and forconverting text into voice messages. This proposed system does not dealwith the issue of how to contact the party receiving the phone call butonly leaves a message for that party in the event that the phone is inan off-hook condition. For further details, refer to U.S. Pat. No.5,530,740 to Irribarren et al.

Another information processing system has been described as having atelephone and an informational processing device. This system does notaddress the issue of whether a called party telephone is in an on-hookor off-hook condition. For further details, refer to U.S. Pat. No.5,500,893 to Onosaka.

A system for synchronization of mail boxes over a network has beenproposed. This system is designed to ensure that information inelectronic mail is complete in a series of different mailboxes. Theissue of providing information to a caller regarding the status of acalled party's telephone is not dealt with. For further details, referto U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,002 to Brunson.

What is desired is a system whereby a calling party can pre-determinethe status of a called party's telephone (on-hook or off-hook) so as tomaximize the opportunity for completing a telephone call to the desiredparty.

SUMMARY

It is therefore an object of the present invention to maximize theprobability that a calling party will actually contact a called partywhen a telephone call is made.

It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a statusof the called party's telephone (on-hook or off-hook) before the callingparty makes the telephone call to the called party.

It is a further objective of the present invention to provide telephonestatus information over a network.

It is a further objection of the present invention to continuallymonitor the status of a telephone in order to provide the telephone inorder to provide the telephone status information desired.

It is a further objective of the present invention to store telephoneline status in a file that can be accessed by others.

It is a further objective of the present invention to constantly updatethe telephone line status file so that callers accessing the file canhave an up-to-date record of the status of a telephone to be called.

It is a further objective of the present invention to obtain the statusof a called party's telephone over cable systems connected to publicswitched telephone networks.

It is yet another objection to obtain the status of a called party'stelephone when both the called party and the calling party are connectedto cable systems.

It is a further objective of the present invention to obtain the statusof a called party's telephone when the called party is connected to acable system but the calling party is not.

It is yet another objective of the present invention to generallyprovide information concerning home and office equipment and functionsto a file that can be accessed by networks external to the home, such asthe Internet.

These and other objectives of the present invention will become apparentfrom a review of the general and detailed descriptions that follow. Thepresent invention provides a method for a calling party to receiveconstantly updated information concerning the status of a telephone(on-hook or off-hook) to be called. For purposes of this specificationthis status will generally be called the “telephone status.” The presentinvention also provides a way for a calling party to leave e-mail andvoice mail to the called party as part of the determination of telephonestatus.

The present invention comprises a monitoring system that can constantlypoll a series of telephones, and stores information concerning thetelephone status in a telephone status file. Alternatively, the systemswitch simply records the off-hook status of a telephone of the systemand provides a notation to a file that is accessible to others. Thus, atelephone is presumed to be on-hook unless it is determined to beoff-hook. That file is one that, in a preferred embodiment, can beaccessed over the Internet. When a calling party desires to maximize itsprobability of actually being connected with a called party, the callingparty accesses the telephone's status file over the Internet andreceives a determination of whether the called telephone is on-hook oroff-hook. When an off-hook condition is noted, the calling party willnot attempt to place the telephone call. In addition, the calling partymay elect to alert the called party that a call was attempted, to sendan e-mail and have the e-mail delivered as a voice mail message, or tobe signaled when the called party's phone is on-hook. When the telephonestatus is noted as on-hook, the calling party can then make thetelephone call with some reasonable assurance of reaching the telephoneof the called party.

This system differs from existing private branch exchanges (PBX) in thata current PBX can have a “camp on” feature that allows a use to place aphone call to a telephone on the PBX, note that the called telephone isoff-hook and “camp on” to the called party's telephone line so that whenan on-hook condition is noted, the PBX can automatically connect thecalling party to the called party. The difficulty with such camp onsystems is that they cannot be used by people outside the PBX. Inaddition, when using the camp on feature, the call is “camped” onlyafter is placed. The caller still has invested both time and money inexchange for a busy signal. In contrast to existing PB camp on systems,the system and method of the present invention allows a user to beadvised of the status of a telephone via network external to thelocation of the telephone to maximize the probability of actually makingthe desired connection.

An alternative embodiment of the present invention is to connect thecalling party's telephone to the computer at the calling party'slocation. Thereafter, upon a determination by the calling party'stelephone is such that a call can be made, the user's computer will thendial the user's telephone prompting the user to pick that telephone upand thereafter dial the called party's telephone thereby completing thetelephone call in an automated fashion.

A further embodiment of the present invention is to use atelecommunications device (wireless or otherwise, e.g., a computer, atelephone, or a personal digital assistant) to send the called party ane-mail and then have the e-mail delivered to the called party's voicemail box. The called party retrieves the e-mail-converted-to-voicemessage from the voice mail box using any of a number of devices (e.g.,a computer, a telephone, or a personal digital assistant).

It is also the case the telephone companies are seeking to expand theirmarkets for both long distance and local services. This expansion hascaused certain long distance to acquire cable companies in order toprovide local service to customers. This cable-borne telephone is yetanother way for long distance carriers to reach local users by virtue ofthe cable system infrastructure already in place. Where such cableinfrastructure exists, it is also possible to obtain the telephonestatus of users telephones over the cable system.

Obtaining telephone status over the cable network occurs in a similarfashion to that already noted above. In a first embodiment, a calledparty's telephone is either plugged into a set-top box or otherinterface through which telephone services are offered. Alternatively,the called party's telephone is connected to a computer system which isin turn connected to a set-top box ore other telephone and/or datainterface for those cable operations that offer Internet-over-cableservice. The off-hook status of the telephone at the called party'slocation is determined via a switch at the telephone company (telco).That off-hook status is provided to a file that is accessible over theInternet.

Thus, a calling party, desiring to obtain the status of the telephone ata location having cable service would again access the Internet andobtain information from the telephone status file which is constantlyupdated by the telco switch. Conversely, information concerningtelephone status file over the cable network. In this manner, any usercan obtain the telephone status via a computer system linked to theInternet via a cable operator. In addition, telephone status can beprovided to a telephone status file over the Internet for thosetelephones that can use local cable operator infrastructure to connectto the public switched telephone network.

As noted above, a calling party at the cable location can also obtainthe telephone status of the called party telephone by simply using thecomputer that is plugged into the set-top box or other telephony/datainterface provided to go over the Internet to the telephone status file.This additional cable network thereby allows updating of the telephonestatus file and allows telephone status to be obtained in yet anotherfashion.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will beapparent in the following detailed description read in conjunction withthe accompanying drawing figures.

FIG. 1 illustrates the basic architecture of a telephone status monitoraccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a telephone status monitor according to an alternateembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates an operational process of a telephone status monitoraccording to the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates an operational process of a telephone status monitoraccording to an alternate embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates a telephone status monitor system embodiment usingwireless network components.

FIG. 5A illustrates an alternate embodiment using cable infrastructure.

FIG. 6 illustrates a cable infrastructure embodiment with telephonestatus provided over the cable infrastructure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention is a system and method for obtaining the telephonestatus (on-hook/off-hook) of a called party's telephone over a networkexternal to the location of the called party's telephone, such as theInternet.

Referring to FIG. 1, the general architecture of the telephone statusmonitor is described. Using a personal computer or other similar type ofprocessor 12 a user accesses a network, in this case the Internet 10,although this is not meant as a limitation. Any network that can beconnected to a calling party and a called party can also be used. Thecalling party accesses the telephone status file 8 which is continuallyupdated by a telephone status monitor 6 which constantly monitors aseries of telephones 2, 4. It should be noted that it is anticipatedthat many thousands of telephones will be monitored in this fashion.Eventually it is anticipated that millions of phones will be somonitored. The monitoring function can be accomplished by specialequipment for that purpose or is simply the output of a switch thatrecognizes when a particular telephone is off-hook on the network.

The status file 8 is continually updated by monitor 6 with the on-hookor off-hook status of telephones that are monitored. Thus, the callingparty communicating with a PC 12 can receive “real time” status (asdetermined by the sampling rate of the monitor) of a telephone beingcalled by simply monitoring the telephone status file that is accessibleover the Internet.

Since the status file is anticipated to contain many thousands ofnumbers it is anticipated as past of the present invention that when acalling party using its PC 12 requests the status of a particulartelephone that only the status of that telephone will subsequently bedisplayed on the user PC. Alternatively, the user PC 12 may create alist of numbers to monitor and have the data “pushed” over the Internet10 to the calling party's PC 12.

Referring to FIG. 2, an alternate embodiment of the present invention isshown. In this case, calling party's PC 20 accesses the telephone statusfile 22 over the Internet 30. Again, the telephone status file 22 iscontinually updated by a telephone status monitor 24 which monitorstelephones 26 and 28 (again these are representative of a plurality oftelephones fully monitored by the system). In this case, however, thecalling party has a telephone 32 that is connected to the callingparty's PC 20. When the calling party's PC 20 monitors the status of acalled party via the status file 22 as soon as the called party statusindicates an on-hook condition, the PC 20 will then place a telephonecall to the called party. This makes the entire connection process anautomated one. This embodiment finds particular utility in a privatebranch exchange (PBX) where a telco switch is ordinarily not monitoringindividual telephones.

Although the invention may be embodied so as to monitor status any typeof telephone, it has particular value for monitoring the status ofordinary telephones on the plain old telephone system (i.e., POTStelephones). That is because the POTS does not have the sort oftelephone status monitoring features that may be included in newergenerations of telephone networks.

Referring again to FIG. 2, the calling party may also send an e-mail tothe called party's PC 34. The e-mail is converted from text to digitalvoice at converter 36 and routed to the voice mail box 36 and routed tothe voice mail box 36 of the called party.

Referring to FIG. 3, the flow of the method of the present invention isshown. A calling party having a PC inputs a telephone number to becalled (the called party) 101. Thereafter, the calling party's PCconnects to the Internet 103 subsequently accesses the telephone statusfile 105. The status of the called party's telephone number is thendetermined 107 and that status is provided back to the calling party'sPC 109 noting that status of the called party's telephone line.

Upon receipt of the called party's status, that information is displayedfor the calling party 111 and thereafter, if the called party'stelephone line status is in an on-hook condition, the user can then dialthe called party 113.

Referring to FIG. 4, an alternate embodiment of the present invention isshown. All of the steps of the access to the status of the calledparty's telephone line is the same is noted previously in FIG. 3.However, instead of the user making the telephone call, the PCcontinually monitors the telephone status file. Upon noting that thecalled party's telephone status is in an on-hook condition, the callingparty's PC dials the called party's telephone 115. The calling party'sPC then waits to receive an on-hook signal from the called party'stelephone 117, thereby signaling that the calling party is on thetelephone ready to make the telephone call. The calling party's PC thenplaces the telephone call to the called party's telephone 119, therebycompleting the telephone call. It should be noted that at the presenttime it is possible to place a telephone call over the Internet.Therefore, the calling party's PC can place the call over the Internetto a called party's telephone or, in the alternative, the callingparty's PC can simply place a call over the public switch telephonenetwork to the called party's telephone.

Referring to FIG. 5, an alternative embodiment of the present inventionis illustrated. While it is important for long-distance callers to beable to ascertain whether the party is online or not, this is alsoparticularly important when one is dealing with wireless communications.For example, and as described earlier, personal computer 20 can connectto, for example, the Internet 102 to ascertain the status of wirelesstelephones 112, 114, and 118. The query concerning the telephone statusthen proceeds through a wireless application protocol (WAP) interface106 to wireless network 108. The request then flows to the wirelessnetwork manager 110 which records which wireless phones are currentlyavailable on the network and, of key importance, which of thosetelephones is engaged in an active telephone call. Thus network managerknows that wireless telephones 112 and 114 are available for telephonecalls or in the alternative that, for example, wireless telephone 114 isengaged in an active phone call. This information is then sent bynetwork manager 110 over wireless network 108 through WAP interface 106through Internet 102 to PC 20. At that point the user can decide to makea telephone call using conventional telephone 32 over the public switchtelephone network 104 through the WAP interface 106 over wirelessnetwork 108 to the wireless telephones 112, 114. Alternatively,telephone 32 can place its call through PC 20 via Internet telephonyover the Internet 102 to the wireless telephones 112, 114.

This knowledge of the status of telephones in a wireless system isparticularly important, since certain trends exist to charge only thecaller for calls that are to be made to or from a wireless network. Thisis consistent with the current method of charging for telephone callsover a public switch telephone network. Thus, in a situation where acaller is charged for all telephone calls made, it will be particularlyimportant to the caller that it not get charged for leaving a messageover a wireless network which tends to be particularly expensive.

The expense in dealing with a wireless network is all the more apparentwhen one considers that a telephone may be in a “roaming” mode where thetelephone is in a network which is not the home network for the wirelesstelephone. Thus, in the case where wireless telephone 118 is roaming ina second wireless network 116, a telephone call that is not completed orwherein a message is simply left, becomes all the more expensive sinceroaming charges will be charged to the caller as well.

It is also important to note that an entire generation of video phones100 are becoming available. The video phone in certain instances willtake the place of personal computer 20 for interacting with the Internetand making telephone calls. Such a telephone is the I Phone® model 2050,for example, whose functionality, technical aspects, and capabilitiesare incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Such a videophone 100 can also interact with Internet 102 through WAP interface 106to ascertain the status of wireless telephones 112, 114 over wirelessnetwork 108. When information is subsequently displayed on video phone100 regarding the availability of wireless telephones 112, 114, a callcan be placed either over the Internet 102 or over public switchtelephone network 104 through the wireless network to the wirelesstelephones desired.

Referring to FIG. 5A, an alternative embodiment of the present inventionusing cable network services is shown. In this instance, the callingparty is connected to cable service for voice and data services. Thecable network operations center 50 is connected to the Internet usingknown cable-to-Internet connections. The set-top box at a callingparty's location 52 is remotely connected to a cable operations center50. A television 53 is connected to the set-top box 52. In oneembodiment, a calling party's telephone 54 is directly connected to beset-top box 52 where telephone service is offered over a cable network.In addition, however, the calling party's computer 56 can also beconnected to the cable set-top box 52 and, using the access to theInternet 10 obtain the status of a remote telephone 2, 3, 4 viainformation in the telephone status file 8. The connection of the cablesystem can also be through any other voice/data interface provided bythe cable carrier since set top boxes will not be the only interface tovoice and data services over cable. If a calling party has a telephone58 connected to the calling party's computer, upon obtaining a statusindicating that a called party's telephone is available, calling partytelephone 58 can make a telephone calls through the calling party'scomputer 56 through the set-top box (or other interface) 52 through thecable operations center 50 via the telephone company over the publicswitched telephone network 62 to the called party's telephone 2, 3 or 4.

Alternatively, where Internet telephone service is available and thecalling party, via the computer 56 determines that a remote telephone isavailable, a calling party places a telephone call over the Internet viathe calling party's telephone 58 through the calling party's computer 56through the set-top box (or other interface) 52 to cable networkoperations center 50 through the Internet 10 via a computer at thecalled party's location to the called party's telephone 2, 3, or 4.

Referring to FIG. 6 a cable infrastructure embodiment of the presentinvention is illustrated. Telephone 60, 82 are connect to a residentialtelephone service provided over a cable infrastructure. As noted aboveit is a growing trend in the current telecommunications market fortelephone companies to merge with or acquire cable networks in order toprovide local and long distance services over cable instead of overnormal telephone wires.

When, for example, telephone 60 is making a call over cableinfrastructure 64, the telephone call ultimately goes through some formof switch 68, and then to the public switched telephone network 72 forrouting to its ultimate destination by known networks and means. Switch68, having knowledge of the off hook status of telephone 60, providesthat status to telephone status file 70 which is accessible over theInternet 66. A calling party having a computer 74 can then access theInternet 66 to gain access to the telephone status file 70 therebydetermining if user 60 is on the line or not. Once the calling partydetermines that the called party telephone 60 is not off hook, a callcan be made from the calling party telephone 76 over PSTN 72 to thecalled party 60. Alternatively, the calling party can place an Internettelephone call to the third party if the called party has thiscapability. Thus it can be seen that the telephone status file can beaccessed over those cable systems that are linked to the normaltelephone company long distance operations.

A telephone line status monitoring system and method has been describedherein. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that minormodifications to the present invention could be made without departingfrom the scope of the invention as disclosed. For example, it is alsopossible with the system of the present invention to monitor temperatureof the home. In this instance, the system has a thermostat in place ofthe telephone system. The thermostat places its readings into a fileover the Internet which can be read by a user when the user is at aremote location. In this manner the user can monitor home temperatureduring absences.

Monitoring of temperature is also useful for refrigerators, freezers,and commercial HVAC systems. The present invention allows for problemsin such thermal systems to be monitored remotely, spotted early, andcorrected before any serious economic consequences occur.

Similarly, just as messages can be transmitted to the user of thetelephone, so can instructions to raise or lower temperature in the homebe transmitted to the thermostat over the Internet.

Alarm monitoring can also be accomplished using the system and method ofthe present invention. As will be appreciated by those skilled in theart, alarm monitoring comprises monitoring the status of sensors placedin a dwelling or other structure. Sensors may detect motion, glassbreakage, opening and closing of windows and doors, heat, water, andenvironmental conditions. Monitoring may also comprise video imaging ofa structure and the space defined by the structure. In this instance,when an alarm goes off, the alarm company can be notified. However, thealarm could also be noted in a file to be reviewed by a user when theuser is away from the premises. In this case the user will know an alarmhas gone off and can contact the alarm company to ascertain the meaningof the alarm.

An additional embodiment of the alarm concept of the present inventionis for a formatted email to be sent to the owner of the premises so thatthe owner can have more specific notification of the meaning of anyalarm that goes off.

A telephone status monitoring system and method has now been shown. Itwill be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other equipment inthe home of office may be monitored as well using the system of thepresent invention without departing from the scope of the invention asdisclosed.

The present invention has been described in terms of preferredembodiments, however, it will be appreciated that various modificationsand improvements may be made to the described embodiments withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention. The present invention islimited only by the appended claims.

1. A method comprising: monitoring, by a telephone status monitoringdevice, a status of a telephone via a first network, wherein the statusincludes an indication of whether the telephone is engaged in an activetelephone call; and transmitting, by the telephone status monitoringdevice, the status of the telephone to another device via a secondnetwork, wherein the transmitting is in response to the another deviceattempting to place a call to the telephone, and wherein the first andthe second networks are different networks.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein monitoring the status of the telephone comprises monitoring thestatus of a wireless telephone.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinmonitoring the status of the telephone comprises monitoring a roamingstatus of a wireless telephone, wherein the roaming status indicatesthat the wireless telephone is operating outside of a home network. 4.The method of claim 1, further comprising: storing, by the telephonestatus monitoring device, the status of the telephone in a telephonestatus file associated with the telephone and that is accessible via thesecond network, or accessible via a third network that is different fromthe first or second networks.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: updating, by the telephone status monitoring device, thestatus of the telephone in a telephone status file in response todetecting a change in the status of the telephone.
 6. An apparatus,comprising: means for monitoring a status of a telephone via a firstnetwork, wherein the status includes an indication of whether thetelephone is engaged in an active telephone call; and means fortransmitting the status of the telephone to another device via a secondnetwork in response to the another device attempting to place a call tothe telephone, wherein the first and the second networks are differentnetworks.
 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the telephone is awireless telephone.
 8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the means formonitoring the status of the telephone comprises means for monitoring aroaming status of a wireless telephone, wherein the roaming statusindicates that the wireless telephone is operating outside of a homenetwork.
 9. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising: means forstoring the status of the telephone in a telephone status fileassociated with the telephone and that is accessible via the secondnetwork, or accessible via a third network that is different from thefirst or second networks.
 10. The apparatus of claim 6, furthercomprising means for storing the status of the telephone and forupdating the status of the telephone in a telephone status file inresponse to detecting a change in the status of the telephone.